Real estate investors

Building permit datafor real estate investors

Remodel, demolition, addition and new-construction permits by county, with job values and dates back to 1963: 4.9M permits in one schema.

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A miter saw and orange ear protectors on a workbench outside a house under renovation — Renovation job site · Photo: Taduuda (CC0)

Building permits: 4.9M
Building departments: 591
Permit history: Since 1963
Update cadence: Monthly

Find the market, then the property

Permit volume moves before prices do, and a property’s permit history is its capital-expenditure record.

A leading indicator

Rising remodel and new-construction volume shows where values are heading before sales do.

Deferred maintenance

Properties with nothing filed in decades are your value-add candidates.

Capex on comps

Job values on comparable properties ground the rehab budget.

Permits that drive an investment thesis

Remodel volume

Renovation permits by county, year and month.

Demolitions

Teardowns ahead of new construction.

New construction

Single-family and multifamily starts.

Additions

Square footage added across a submarket.

Quiet properties

Parcels with no permits in decades.

Contractor activity

Which builders and remodelers are busiest where.

What every file holds

4.9M permits from 591 building departments, in one schema.

Data dictionary Pricing

The same columns for every department: Permit number, type, work description, status, application, issue and completion dates, job value, contractor, site address and parcel ID.
Full history, or the past 12 months monthly: A county’s full history is $250–$500 once; a fresh 12-month file every month is $45–$75/mo. Statewide files and nationwide licensing too.
Joins to parcels: 99% of permits carry the county’s parcel ID, for joins to assessor rolls and parcel boundaries.
CSV, Excel or Parquet: Chosen per order, one file per county or state.

Common questions

How far back does the history go?

To 1963 in the deepest counties. Each county page charts permits by year, so you can see its history before you buy.

Can I buy a whole state?

Yes. Every state with available counties sells a statewide file, priced below the sum of its counties.

What formats do files come in?

CSV, Excel or Parquet, chosen per order.

How is it priced?

Counties are $250–$500 for the full history or $45–$75/mo for monthly updates, by county size. Statewide files are priced on permit count and never cost more than their counties combined. Every county and state page shows its exact price.

Underwrite with the permit record

Buy the full history for the counties you target, or the statewide file.

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